1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to communication terminals, communication state information providing systems, and methods of providing communication state information.
2. Related Background Art
An exemplary system for providing individual information such as location information of communication terminals to other terminals, is such that a server, after having received and accumulated location information of mobile communication terminals of information providers, transmits the information to mobile communication terminals of information requesters as needed (see, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2002-271837). Recently, on the other hand, in communication terminals such as mobile communication terminals, there has been offered communication, using a plurality of communication methods, via a single communication terminal, furnished with a plurality of communication functions of different communication methods installed thereon (see Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2001-224071).
When providing individual information of a communication terminal having a plurality of communication functions to other terminals as stated above, the communication terminal transmits, using any communication function among the plurality of the communication functions, the individual information to a server or the like which is connected to a network. In this case, if the communication state of the communication terminal is desired to be provided as the individual information, it is easy to grasp the communication state of the communication function on the network to which the server is connected, but grasping the communication state pertaining to the other communication functions poses difficulties. Such tendency is made remarkable for communication terminals having various provided communication functions such as wireless LAN communication, mobile communication, short-distance wireless communication, or the like.
In the event that it is possible to grasp only the communication state of a portion of the communication functions, as thus described, in some cases the communication state of one communication function is in a non-connection state such as “incoming call waiting state”, for example, while other functions are in use, so that it might be not possible to clearly know the communication state of the communication terminal. As a result, there might be caused disagreement between the actual communication state of the communication terminal having a plurality of communication functions and the communication state to be provided to other terminals.